Research Notes

Mindfulness is the tool that helps us ace our inner name. It is defined as
the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the
present moment, and ‘non-judgmentally’ to the unfolding of experience
moment by moment.

Rishabh Pant was a budding young cricketer who became famous after the 2017 edition of the
Indian Premier League. On May 4, 2017, Pant hit 97 runs for 43 balls in the 42nd match between
Delhi Daredevils and Gujarat Lions. His innings included 6 fours and 9 sixes. He was instrumental in
overhauling the Gujarat team’s total of 208 runs. Delhi team reached 214 runs in just 17.3 overs.
The most revealing insight into Pant’s batting philosophy was provided by Sanju Samson. During the
course of their 143-run partnership in 63 balls for the second wicket, Pant gave Samson some useful
advice. “I started the innings really well. After hitting two sixes [in an over], I thought about taking a
single. He [Pant] came to me and told me: ‘Bhaiyya, zyaada socho mat, bas maarte raho (brother,
don’t think too much, just keep hitting)’.”  Reflecting on his mindset during the match, Pant said, “I
was not thinking I will get out or something like that. If the ball is bad, you have to punish it.” Rishabh
Pant has gone on to become one of the important members of the present-day Indian cricket team
and has won many hearts with his performance under pressure, the most recent being the most-
recent test series India played in Australia in 2020-21.
What works in sports, though, is often true in our work lives too. Most often we can see that when we
are working at our best, our minds are quiet and relaxed. Such moments are rare but when they
happen, it feels like magic. If according to Rishabh Pant, not thinking too much may help a batsman
to stay focused and keep hitting the ball well, then what do all those voices in our heads mean? For
instance, we often hear voices within us such as ‘What is wrong with me? Why I am so stupid? Why
can’t I do this?’ Often our negative judgments seem to be an automatic response. The question to
ponder here is ‘Who is speaking to whom when we hear these voices within us?’.
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I call the voice that is talking as our ‘ego-self’ and the one it is talking to as our ‘natural self’. Ego-self
is an invented or an acquired self whose formation begins as soon as we, as children, are exposed
to the rules and norms of our parents (and through them our society). Ego-self is driven by fear,
comparison and judgements. It includes judgments and beliefs about ourselves and the world that
we believe and accept as absolute truth, but often it is not. On the other hand, our ‘natural-self’ is the
real us! It is all the inherent potential we were born with. It symbolizes our innate ability to enjoy,
learn, perform and grow. 

Inner Game and Performance at Work

Every performance has two games. One game is played outside and includes the external factors
that influence our performance. The other game is played inside between the ‘ego-self’ and the
‘natural-self’. Our performance in any activity can be understood by a simple formula:

 
Performance = Potential (natural-self capability) –
Interference (deprecating ego-self talk)
Performance in any activity, from hitting a cricket ball to solving complex business problems, is equal
to one’s potential (inherent capability of our natural-self) minus the interference caused by the
negative ego-self talk. The greater the external challenges faced by an individual, the more
important it is that there be a minimum of interference occurring within. It, therefore, becomes
absolutely essential to develop skills to learn to manage and play our inner game better. 
Ego-self is programmed and is much dumber than the natural-self. Imagine you have had a busy
and exhausting day at the office. You had asked your colleague to get a particular work done in the
morning. As you enter the office, after a long and difficult meeting in the evening, you see a file kept
on your table and the work not done. You feel overwhelmed and angry. You think your colleague is
making an excuse and is not helping you at work. You react by shouting at her and doing work in
anger. The next round of emotions and thoughts are more likely to be even more negative. The
downward spiral continues. The above-mentioned sequence of events can be well understood
through the lens of ego-self that is quick, judgemental, critical and often fearing (thinking) about how
we can be wronged. By assigning the thought of ‘colleague not helping you at work’ to the event of a
file lying on the table, you felt overwhelmed and angry and committed to the act of reprimanding the
colleague. 
Our brains are extremely poor at multitasking – doing two things at the same time. Try observing that
when you think about home or some other thing (e.g., cricket, sports) while reading a document,
your eyes scroll down to the bottom of the page but what was written on the page does not register
in your mind. Similarly, notice yourself eating food while watching television. Oftentimes, either we
eat more or we do not enjoy the food as much or do not notice what we are eating when our
attention is focused on television. Listening to all the (often negative) voices while performing an
activity distracts our minds and may drive us to make wrong decisions. Multitasking leads to
increased time and effort to complete a particular task, leads to more errors and accidents
(remember you are asked not to talk and drive) and leads to poor quality relationships. 
Mindfulness is the tool that helps us ace our inner name. It is defined as the awareness that
emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and ‘non-judgmentally’ to the
unfolding of experience moment by moment. Mindfulness involves directing attention to the
experience in the present moment and a non-evaluative observation of that experience. 
The first step towards mindfulness is to have a non-judgmental approach and to accept things as
they are. It is the conscious acceptance of oneself and